Question for members of 24 Hour Fitness (1 Viewer)

[Jason L.]

OK, this being the Home Theater Forum, it might not be the best place to ask this question but here goes:

I just signed up for a 3-year membership with 24-Hour Fitness. 13 months paid + 23 bonus months for free. Thereafter which it will cost me $49/year to renew the membership.

I had some questions about the renewal with the salesperson, but as usual they were a box of rocks.

I asked - when do you have to renew? The salesperson said that they would send something in the mail when it was time for my renewal.

I had this happen once before with a different club. I assumed that they would want to try and hold on to their members and get in touch with me before my membership expired, but I never heard from them after my membership had expired and my renewal period ended and I was out of luck.

Since these salespeople are not only dumb, but employ some of the highest-pressure tactics ever known to man, I decided to read every single line of the contract.

I don't have it in front of me now, but there 2 important sentences. One said that I have 30 days before my "Renewal Date" in order to renew. The other said that if that period expires, I would have to buy another membership.

The problem is that nowhere on the contract does it say what exactly my "Renewal Date" is. I don't know if it is after 13 months or 36 months. I don't want to mess this up since I spent a lot of money up front to get that low renewal rate.

Does anyone know what the renewal procedure with 24-Hour Fitness is? Do they actually send you something in the mail when it is time to renew?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Don Black]

I can't answer your questions but I just read a lengthy article in Forbes on how fitness clubs are becoming more and more like banks. They make their money up front and off of finance charges. Bally writes off about 50% of booked revenue due to truant and bankrupt members each year. It's smart of you to solve this problem now. Good luck!

 

[Greg_R]

$49/yr??? Are you sure that's not $49/mo?

Greg

 

[Shayne Judge]

I would call their corporate office. In our experience they were knowledgeable, although not necessarily helpful.

I do have a rather negative experience with 24 Hour Fitness in regards to membership. Three years ago my wife, who was my girlfriend at the time, signed herself up for 24 HR. A few months later she added my name to her account, and since we were living together, and I was an add-on, they just added $15 to the total membership fee per month.

Well, in June we moved here to Tampa, so she went in to cancel her membership. She specifically told the guy, "my husband is also on the account, do I need to do anything else?" The moron said no, just fill out this one cancellation form. My wife said she even put my name on the cancellation form, and handed it in. Well, we later found out they continued to direct withdraw $15 a month from our checking account.

We called corporate and they stated that my wife should have submitted two cancellation forms. When we explained what happened, they refused to refund our money without a copy of the cancellation form. My wife has been unable to locate that form, so we may be SOL.